By Bryan Schwartzman
Balram Singh, 48, was stabbed several times in the chest and found dead by his ex-wife in his home at 94-18 131st St. in Ozone Park, said Officer Joseph Cavitolo, a police spokesman.
Then Sunday morning, the day before Christmas, a passerby noticed the body of a woman stuffed in a plastic bag on the side of the road at 244th Street and North Conduit Avenue in Rosedale, police said.
Singh was discovered at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday night lying face-up in his bedroom, Cavitolo said. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide and said the cause of death was slash wounds to the neck and chest, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office.
By press time, police had not disclosed any possible motive for the crime.
On Sunday, Singh's home was still roped off with police tape and two officers from the 102nd Precinct sat in a patrol car outside the house making sure no one went near the crime scene.
The street is just south of Atlantic Avenue and several blocks west of the Van Wyck Expressway.
“He was a nice guy,” said Jerry Lynnchoe, who lives on the block. “I never had words with him.”
Lynnchoe said this type of crime was very unusual for the neighborhood.
“If someone has a problem with you, they usually just beat you up,” he said. “It was probably a burglary or robbery.”
“This neighborhood is getting bad,” said another resident who did not wish to be identified.
“This is the first time I am having Christmas in the house,” she said. “My mother and my sisters are coming. I don't know what they are going to think.”
The woman described Singh as a quiet man who always tended to his yard and house and helped kept the block clean. She said she did not know him well, but it was apparent that his wife and children had not been living with him for some time.
By press time, police had not identified the woman found in Rosedale, and the medical examiner had not determined the cause of death.
Half a dozen detectives were at the Rosedale scene Sunday afternoon, and the body was not removed until the early evening said Detective Charlie Mahatcek of the 105th Precinct. The police presence backed up traffic along Brookville Boulevard, which intersects North Conduit Avenue and is a heavily traveled route.
While most of the body was covered by a black plastic bag, the woman's hands were clearly visible from the street, which has a park on one side and single family homes on the other.
On Christmas Day detectives were working at the Queens County Morgue in an effort to identify the body.
